MakeMyTrip – An Indian online travel company

Headquartered in Gurgaon, Haryana, Makemytrip Inc. is an Indian online travel company founded in 2000. The company provides online travel services including flight tickets, domestic and international holiday packages, hotel reservations, rail and bus tickets, etc. The company has been recognized as one of India’s best travel portals. The company also operates through 65 retail stores across 50 cities in India, along with offices in New York City and Sydney. Makemytrip holds close to 25% market share of the OTA hotel booking segment.

History

MakeMyTrip was founded by Deep Kalra, an alumnus of Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad. It was launched in the US market in 2000 to cater to the overseas Indian community for their US-to-India travel needs. MakeMyTrip started its Indian operations in September 2005, offering online flight tickets to Indian travellers. The company also started to focus on non-air businesses like holiday packages and hotel bookings. On 13 August 2010, MakeMyTrip was listed on the NASDAQ and went public, making a debut in the US market.

MakeMyTrip via Magzter

In 2011, the company created several travel-related apps for all types of mobile devices (smartphones and basic cellphones). In the same year, MakeMyTrip also made three acquisitions, namely, Luxury Tours and Travel Private Limited (Singapore), Le Travenues Technology Private Limited (Gurgaon, India) and My Guest House Accommodation (New Delhi, India). MakeMyTrip’s other acquisitions include travel operators like ITC Group and Hotel Travel Group to enter new markets in the South-East Asian region in the year 2012. In June 2015, MakeMyTrip invested $3 million in Inspirock, a vacation itinerary planning website. In September 2014, MakeMyTrip instituted a $15 million innovation fund to support early stage companies in the travel space.

MakeMyTrip acquired Mygola, a travel planning website in April 2015. The acquisition was done through the innovation fund and as part of the acquisition all employees of MyGola were absorbed into the MakeMyTrip team.

In July 2015, MakeMyTrip invested in travel information and hotel review portal, HolidayIQ to pick up 28% stake in the company. In the same month, it also invested $5 million in Bona Vita Technologies, a start-up which plans to utilize the funds to build innovative products in the travel industry.

In November 2015, MakeMyTrip launched a new offering called Value+, in the quality budget hotels category.

In 2016, a Chinese travel booking giant Ctrip agreed to invest $180 million to MakeMyTrip.

MakeMyTrip and Ibibo Merger via Media India Group

Makemytrip and Ibibo Merger

Makemytrip and Ibibo have agreed to merge. This merger is through in a stock transaction, representing the coming together of India’s largest travel booking portals. The deal that may be valued at $1.8-2 billion, In which Makemytrip will acquire rival Ibibo in what has been pegged as the biggest acquisition in India’s online travel space. At the closing, MMYT shareholders will own 60% whereas Ibibo shareholders will get a 40% stake, making Naspers and Tencent the single largest shareholder in MakeMyTrip.